@sunilaleti/hx 0.0.0-stage → 1.0.0

package/README.md

@@ -1,3 +1,1342 @@
-# Temporary Holding Version
+# HX
 
-This version is a temporary placeholder for this package. An operational version to replace this has been submitted for review and is awaiting a staged release.
+An agent harness for the terminal. TypeScript on Node.js, its own terminal
+renderer, and models through OpenRouter or a ChatGPT, Claude or Devin
+subscription.
+
+HX runs in your project directory, reads and edits your code, runs commands in
+a sandboxed shell, and shows you what every turn costs.
+
+---
+
+## Install
+
+```sh
+npm install --global @sunilaleti/hx
+```
+
+HX runs on [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/) 22.15 or newer, on macOS and Linux.
+Run the same command again to update. Then run `hx`: the first time, it opens
+with the HX logo and says to type `/login`.
+
+Or let the install script check your Node.js version and run that command:
+
+```sh
+curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aletisunil/hx/main/install.sh | sh
+```
+
+### `@sunilaleti/hx` on npm, `hx` in your terminal
+
+The package is published as **`@sunilaleti/hx`**. The command it installs is
+**`hx`**, and that is what you type - the longer name never appears again
+after install. The plain name `hx` on npm belongs to another package.
+
+| | Name |
+|---|---|
+| npm package | `@sunilaleti/hx` |
+| Command | `hx` |
+| Config directory | `~/.hx` |
+
+If the command isn't found after installing, add npm's global bin directory
+to your `PATH`:
+
+```sh
+export PATH="$(npm prefix --global)/bin:$PATH"
+```
+
+Coming from `hx-cli`, the Python build on PyPI? It is no longer released.
+Remove it, then install from npm - sessions, sign-ins and settings in `~/.hx`
+carry over:
+
+```sh
+uv tool uninstall hx-cli
+npm install --global @sunilaleti/hx
+```
+
+### Credentials
+
+HX reaches models over four routes. Which one serves a turn is decided by the
+model id alone, so "what paid for that" is always answerable by reading it:
+
+| Model id | Route | Billing |
+|---|---|---|
+| `anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5`, `openai/gpt-5`, … | OpenRouter | per token, API key |
+| `openai-codex/gpt-5.6-terra` | ChatGPT Plus/Pro | your subscription |
+| `devin/swe-1-6`, `devin/claude-opus-5`, … | Devin | your subscription |
+| `claude-code/claude-sonnet-5`, `claude-code/claude-opus-4-8`, … | Claude Pro/Max, via Claude Code | your subscription |
+
+Credentials live in `~/.hx/auth.json`, mode 0600, one entry per route - except
+Claude Code's, which stays with Claude Code.
+
+**OpenRouter.** On first run HX asks for a key. Get one at
+<https://openrouter.ai/keys>. Change it later with `/configure` in the TUI, or:
+
+```sh
+hx auth          # which routes have a credential, and where from
+hx auth set      # paste a new OpenRouter key (hidden input)
+hx auth clear    # remove the saved key
+```
+
+Resolution order is `HX_OPENROUTER_API_KEY`, then `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`, then
+the saved file. The environment wins, and both `/configure` and `hx auth` say
+so — otherwise saving a key while a variable is set looks like a no-op.
+
+**ChatGPT Plus/Pro.** Sign in over OAuth and run Codex models against your
+subscription instead of paying per token
+([OpenAI endorses this for OSS harnesses](https://developers.openai.com/community/codex-for-oss)):
+
+```sh
+hx auth login openai-codex      # or /login inside the TUI
+hx --model openai-codex/gpt-5.6-terra
+hx auth logout openai-codex
+```
+
+The browser opens to `auth.openai.com` and redirects to a loopback listener on
+port 1455. Over SSH that redirect cannot reach your machine, so paste the final
+URL into the prompt instead — or set `HX_LOGIN_DEVICE_CODE=1` for the
+device-code flow. Access tokens are refreshed automatically; `/model` only
+offers routes you are actually signed in to.
+
+`hx auth` names the account's plan next to the login, because "which account is
+this and what is it paying for" is otherwise a JWT to decode by hand:
+
+```sh
+hx auth
+# openrouter     key sk-or-…8abd     ~/.hx/auth.json
+# openai-codex   signed in (plus)    ~/.hx/auth.json
+```
+
+Codex is documented as requiring a paid ChatGPT plan, and HX says so when the
+login is on a free one. It does not refuse to try: the plan on the credential
+has been observed deciding nothing — the backend refuses every Codex model on a
+`plus` account with the same error it gives a `free` one — so the switch is
+allowed and the backend's own answer is what reports the problem.
+
+**If every Codex model is refused**, the error says so in those terms: it is
+the account that is being refused, not the model, and a different model id will
+not help. Check that the subscription is active and Codex is enabled for the
+account at <https://chatgpt.com/codex>, and that the official Codex CLI can
+reach it at all.
+
+**Which Codex models you get** is decided by your ChatGPT account, not by HX.
+Signing in fetches the account's own list from the Codex backend, and `/model`
+offers exactly that; ctrl+r in `/model` asks again. Entitlement is per model -
+the same `plus` account can run `gpt-5.6-sol` and be refused `gpt-5.3-codex` —
+so a model the picker does not list is one the subscription does not cover.
+
+**How hard they think** comes from the same fetch. Each Codex model publishes
+its own reasoning levels and its own default — GPT-6 Astra starts at `low`,
+GPT-5.6 Terra at `medium` — and HX asks for the model's default rather than one
+fixed depth. `/effort` changes it:
+
+```
+/effort            # pick from the levels this model offers
+/effort high       # none | minimal | low | medium | high | xhigh | max | ultra
+/effort default    # back to the model's own default
+```
+
+It takes effect on the next turn, is saved to `~/.hx/settings.json` for later
+sessions, and shows on the status bar next to the model — `gpt-5.6-terra (sub)
+· high`. Levels differ per model, so a choice is clamped to what the current
+one offers: `max` runs at `xhigh` on GPT-5.5 rather than being refused, and the
+bar shows what is actually happening. Set it by hand instead with:
+
+```jsonc
+// ~/.hx/settings.json
+{ "models": { "reasoning_effort": "high" } }
+```
+
+When the model list cannot be fetched (no network, an old cache), HX falls back
+to the models it last shipped. To add an id the backend does not advertise:
+
+```jsonc
+// ~/.hx/settings.json
+{ "models": { "codex_models": ["gpt-5.6-terra"] } }
+```
+
+They join the `/model` picker on the next start. HX cannot ask how large an
+unknown model's context window is, so it assumes a conservative 200k — that
+costs an accurate context gauge, not the use of the model.
+
+**Devin.** Sign in with the same browser flow the official `devin` CLI uses,
+and run every model your Devin plan includes - SWE-1.6, and whatever frontier
+models the plan offers - against the subscription:
+
+```sh
+hx auth login devin             # or /login inside the TUI
+hx --model devin/swe-1-6
+hx auth logout devin
+```
+
+**Devin Enterprise** signs in the same way: on the page that opens, choose
+"Log in with Devin for Enterprise", enter your company, and finish through its
+identity provider. Your admin has to grant the "Use Devin CLI" permission first.
+Usage counts toward the organization's allocation, and an enterprise tenant
+served from its own API server is followed there for both turns and the model
+list.
+
+The browser opens to `app.devin.ai` and redirects to a loopback listener on
+`127.0.0.1:59653`. Over SSH, paste the final redirect URL into the prompt
+instead. A Devin login does not refresh: when it expires, HX says so and asks
+you to sign in again. On a machine with no browser at all, a session token in
+`HX_DEVIN_API_KEY` or `DEVIN_API_KEY` is used when nothing is saved.
+
+Signing in fetches the account's own model list, and `/model` offers exactly
+that; ctrl+r in `/model` asks again. Devin publishes each reasoning depth as a
+model of its own - Claude Opus 5 High, Claude Opus 5 Max - and HX folds each
+family into one model, so `/effort` picks the depth on Devin exactly as it does
+on Codex. A fast lane or a 1M-context lane stays a separate model, since it
+changes what a turn costs or how much fits. Router models such as
+`devin/adaptive` are resolved to a concrete model on every turn by Devin itself.
+If the list cannot be fetched, `devin/swe-1-6` and `devin/swe-1-6-fast` stand in.
+
+**Claude Pro/Max.** HX runs Claude models on your Claude subscription through
+the official [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) CLI, the way the
+Claude Agent SDK does. Install Claude Code, then:
+
+```sh
+hx auth login claude-code       # Claude Code's own sign-in; or /login inside HX
+hx --model claude-code/claude-sonnet-5
+```
+
+HX holds no Claude token. The login is Claude Code's, kept and refreshed where
+Claude Code keeps it, so `hx auth logout claude-code` only tells you to run
+`claude auth logout` - which signs out every Claude Code on the machine. A
+headless machine can use a token from `claude setup-token` in
+`CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN`. A Console login (`claude auth login --console`) bills
+per token and is refused: this route is the subscription.
+
+How a turn works: HX starts `claude -p` with every one of Claude Code's own
+tools switched off and serves HX's tools to it as an MCP server. The model's
+tool calls are run, permission-checked and drawn by HX exactly as on every
+other route; Claude Code holds each call open until HX answers it, however long
+an approval takes. The system prompt is Claude Code's, with your AGENTS.md
+files, skills index and `--append-system-prompt` text added. One Claude Code
+process serves a conversation for as long as it can, so the prompt cache
+carries from turn to turn; after an interrupt, a steer while a tool runs, a
+compaction, `/model`, `/effort` or a resumed session, HX starts a new one on a
+session rebuilt from its own transcript. That costs a second or so and a
+partly cold cache, not the conversation.
+
+Claude Code is started isolated from your Claude Code setup: no CLAUDE.md, no
+hooks, no plugins or MCP servers from `~/.claude`, no auto-memory, no
+auto-compaction (HX compacts its own transcript), and nothing saved to Claude
+Code's session list. Variables that would move it off the subscription -
+`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL`, `CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK` and the
+rest - are removed from its environment; its TLS settings are kept (see
+*Behind a TLS-inspecting proxy* below). `HX_CLAUDE_CODE_PATH` points HX at a
+`claude` other than the one on `PATH`.
+
+`/model` offers the models Claude Code lists for the account, each with the
+efforts it accepts for `/effort`; ctrl+r in `/model` asks again. A model Claude
+Code runs at its long context keeps `[1m]` in its id
+(`claude-code/claude-fable-5-1[1m]`), exactly as Claude Code's own `/model` runs
+it. Claude Code lists no context sizes, so a model starts at the window it was
+measured serving on every plan - 1M for Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Sonnet 5 and Opus
+4.7, otherwise 200k - and from its first turn uses the window Claude Code
+reports for your account. When a usage limit is reached, HX says which one and
+when it resets; when a model or its 1M context needs usage credits your plan
+has off, HX says that instead, and what to pick without them.
+
+**Web search.** Optional, and the one credential that is not a model route.
+It powers two tools:
+
+| Tool | Does |
+|---|---|
+| `WebSearch` | search the web, returning ranked results with a snippet each |
+| `WebFetch` | read up to 5 URLs, returned as markdown |
+
+[Tavily](https://app.tavily.com) bills per search rather than per token, so it
+works identically on every route - including the subscription ones,
+where a provider-native search tool is not on offer.
+
+Get a key at <https://app.tavily.com> — the free tier is 1000 searches a month
+and takes no card — then save it:
+
+```sh
+hx auth set tavily      # paste the key, hidden input, saved to ~/.hx/auth.json
+hx auth                 # confirm: `tavily  key tvly-a…f3d9  …/auth.json`
+hx auth clear tavily    # remove it again
+```
+
+Or keep it in the environment instead, which wins only when nothing is saved:
+
+```sh
+export TAVILY_API_KEY=tvly-...     # HX_TAVILY_API_KEY is read first
+```
+
+**Without a key, HX works exactly as before** — `WebSearch` and `WebFetch` are
+simply not registered, and `hx auth` says so:
+
+```
+tavily         not configured      WebSearch and WebFetch are off
+```
+
+There is no nag, no failing tool and no startup warning. Leaving them out is
+deliberate: an advertised tool that always fails still costs cached-prefix
+tokens every turn, and a model told "no key" just calls it again. Adding a key
+turns both on from the next `hx`; no other setting changes.
+
+Credits are reported per call and per session at the foot of every result —
+`[Tavily: 1 credit, 4 this session]`. A search costs 1 credit, `search_depth:
+"advanced"` costs 2, and fetching costs 1 per 5 URLs. Tavily's docs describe a
+`usage` field for this, but the live API does not send one, so HX prices every
+call from those published rates and marks the figure `~1` rather than passing
+an estimate off as measured. Check `app.tavily.com` for the authoritative
+number.
+
+Credits are *not* in the status bar's cost, which prices tokens: `/cost`
+under-reports a session that searched.
+
+**Behind a TLS-inspecting proxy.** HX verifies certificates against the
+operating system's trust store, so a corporate CA the machine already trusts
+needs no setup. When the CA lives only in a file, name it:
+
+```sh
+export HX_CA_BUNDLE=/path/to/corp-ca.pem   # SSL_CERT_FILE and REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE also work
+```
+
+`HX_SSL_NO_VERIFY=1` turns verification off entirely; it prints a warning at
+startup every session, because it is not a fix. A TLS failure is reported in
+one line - `/model` and the startup notice both name the certificate problem
+rather than reporting an empty catalogue with no cause. A file that holds no
+certificates is ignored, with a startup notice that says so.
+
+"Unsupported certificate purpose" (or "unsuitable") is different: the CA is
+trusted, but the proxy signs with a certificate that is not valid for servers,
+so no CA setting fixes it. The network has to fix that certificate or exempt
+the service from inspection; until then only `HX_SSL_NO_VERIFY=1` gets through.
+
+The same settings cover the `claude-code` route, whose requests Claude Code
+makes with its own TLS stack: HX passes `HX_CA_BUNDLE` on to it as
+`NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS` (unless you already set that yourself), and
+`HX_SSL_NO_VERIFY` as `NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0`. Claude Code reads the
+OS trust store on its own, and its own TLS settings reach it untouched:
+`CLAUDE_CODE_CERT_STORE`, and `CLAUDE_CODE_CLIENT_CERT`,
+`CLAUDE_CODE_CLIENT_KEY` and `CLAUDE_CODE_CLIENT_KEY_PASSPHRASE` for a network
+that requires a client certificate.
+
+HX never sends a Claude subscription token to the API itself - Anthropic
+accepts those only from Claude Code, and HX will not impersonate it. The
+`claude-code` route runs the real Claude Code instead.
+
+---
+
+## Running it
+
+```sh
+hx                          # interactive TUI in the current directory
+hx -p "explain this repo"   # headless: streams to stdout, tool activity to stderr
+hx -p "why?" --image s.png  # attach an image to a headless prompt; repeatable
+hx resume                   # resume the last session here
+hx resume <session-id>      # resume a specific one, in the directory it was recorded in
+hx prompt                   # print the system prompt this directory would use
+hx trace                    # write the last session here to an HTML page
+hx trace out.html           # the same, to a path you choose
+hx trace <id> out.html      # a specific session, to a path you choose
+hx --model openai/gpt-5     # override the model for one run
+hx --mode plan              # start read-only
+hx --cwd ../other-project   # run against a different directory
+hx --no-sandbox             # disable OS sandboxing (rules still apply)
+hx --system-prompt @p.md    # replace the system prompt for one run
+hx --append-system-prompt "Always run the tests"   # add to it; repeatable
+hx mcp list|add|remove      # manage MCP servers
+hx mcp approve <server>     # let a server from the project's .hx/mcp.json start
+hx mcp login <server>       # sign in to a remote MCP server in the browser
+hx mcp logout <server>      # forget a remote MCP server's sign-in
+hx auth [set|clear]         # manage the OpenRouter key
+hx auth login [provider]    # sign in (openrouter, openai-codex, devin, claude-code)
+hx auth logout <provider>   # forget a stored credential
+hx docs [section]           # the manual; no argument lists its sections
+hx changelog [version]      # what shipped in each version
+```
+
+Print mode is the scriptable one: stdout carries only the assistant's text, so
+it pipes cleanly.
+
+### The docs ship with the binary
+
+`README.md` and [`CHANGELOG.md`](CHANGELOG.md) are included in the wheel, so
+the installed tool can print the manual and the release record for the version
+you are actually running:
+
+```sh
+hx docs                     # the section titles
+hx docs credentials         # one section, printed whole
+hx docs --all               # the entire manual
+hx changelog                # every release, newest first
+hx changelog 0.1.5          # one release
+hx changelog unreleased     # what has landed since the last tag
+```
+
+The system prompt points a session at these two commands, so "how do I set the
+API key?" or "what changed in the last release?" is answered from the shipped
+documentation rather than from the model's recollection of some other version.
+The call still goes through the permission engine like any other command;
+allowlist it if you would rather not be asked:
+
+```jsonc
+{ "permissions": { "allow": ["Bash(hx docs:*)", "Bash(hx changelog:*)"] } }
+```
+
+`CHANGELOG.md` lists what each version added, and a release cannot skip it:
+`tests/e2e/test_cli.py` fails when `__version__` has no section (see
+[Releasing](#releasing)).
+
+### Keys
+
+Every key below is defined once, in `src/keys.ts`. `/help`, the hints line
+under the prompt and this table all read from that registry, and any of them can
+be rebound (see [Keybindings](#keybindings)).
+
+| Key | Does |
+|---|---|
+| `enter` | send |
+| `shift+enter` | newline (also `ctrl+j`; in a terminal that cannot send `shift+enter`, end the line with `\` and press `enter`) |
+| `esc` | interrupt the current turn |
+| `ctrl+c` | copy the selected text; with nothing selected, clear the prompt (twice on an empty prompt exits) |
+| `ctrl+d` | exit, when the prompt is empty |
+| `shift+tab` | cycle permission mode |
+| `ctrl+p` | command palette |
+| `ctrl+l` | model picker; inside it, `ctrl+r` fetches the catalogue again |
+| `ctrl+o` | expand tool output (also `ctrl+r`) |
+| `ctrl+t` | show the current plan |
+| `ctrl+x` | copy the selected message to the clipboard |
+| `ctrl+up` | previous message |
+| `ctrl+down` | next message |
+| `pgup` | scroll the transcript up (fullscreen; otherwise your terminal scrolls) |
+| `pgdn` | scroll the transcript down (fullscreen; otherwise your terminal scrolls) |
+| `ctrl+home` | jump to the start: the viewport in fullscreen, the first message otherwise |
+| `ctrl+end` | jump back to the newest output |
+| `ctrl+v` | attach the image on the clipboard (see [Images](#images)) |
+| `@path` | complete a file path |
+| `!command` | run a shell command directly, no model turn |
+
+`!` still goes through the permission engine and the sandbox — it skips the
+model, not the safety layers.
+
+The prompt is a readline-style editor: `ctrl+a`/`ctrl+e` for line start and end,
+`ctrl+b`/`ctrl+f` by character, `alt+b`/`alt+f` by word, `ctrl+w` and `alt+d` to
+kill a word, `ctrl+u` and `ctrl+k` to kill to the start or end of a line, then
+`ctrl+y` to yank it back and `alt+y` to walk further down the kill ring.
+`ctrl+z` undoes and `ctrl+shift+z` redoes (`ctrl+_` undoes too). `cmd+z` and
+`cmd+shift+z` work in a terminal that passes cmd through to the program, such
+as kitty or WezTerm; Apple's Terminal, iTerm2 and Ghostty keep cmd+z for their
+own Edit menu. A terminal without the kitty protocol or modifyOtherKeys sends
+`ctrl+shift+z` as `ctrl+z`, so there it undoes. Suspending to the background
+has no key by default - bind `app.suspend` in `keybindings.json` (for example
+to `"ctrl+g"`) to get it back.
+
+Typing `/` or `@` opens a completion list above the prompt; `tab` cycles it,
+`enter` accepts, `esc` dismisses.
+
+#### Copying
+
+`ctrl+x` copies the message the cursor is on, and `/copy` copies the last reply.
+HX writes through the platform's own clipboard tool first (`pbcopy`, `wl-copy`,
+`xclip`, `xsel`) and falls back to OSC 52, which is also always sent over SSH so
+the text lands on the machine you are actually sitting at.
+
+Drag-select in the transcript and `ctrl+c` copies the selection — assistant
+prose and tool output included. With nothing selected, `ctrl+c` keeps its usual
+meaning and clears the prompt. See [Selecting and copying
+text](#selecting-and-copying-text) for the terminal's own selection.
+
+HX does not emit OSC 133 prompt markers yet, so shell-integration features that
+jump between prompts will not see HX's messages.
+
+#### Images
+
+Give the model a picture three ways, and each lands in the prompt as a token
+such as `[Image #1]`:
+
+- **`ctrl+v`** attaches whatever image is on the clipboard: a screenshot copied
+  with `cmd+ctrl+shift+4`, an image copied in a browser, or an image file
+  copied in Finder or a file manager. Terminals whose own paste sends nothing
+  when the clipboard holds a picture are caught too - an empty paste is read as
+  a request for the image.
+- **Drag an image file** into the terminal. The terminal pastes its path, and a
+  paste that is nothing but paths to image files attaches them instead of
+  inserting the text. Quoted, backslash-escaped and `file://` paths all work.
+- **Mention it.** `look at @docs/mockup.png` sends the path as text, and the
+  model opens it with `Read`, which returns images as images.
+
+The token is the attachment: move it and the text refers to the picture in a
+different place, delete it (one `backspace` takes the whole token) and the
+image is not sent. Sent messages list their images underneath, with size and
+weight. Numbers run for the whole session, so a message recalled from history
+or restored by a rewind still carries its pictures.
+
+PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, BMP and TIFF are accepted. An image within every route's
+limits goes byte for byte; a larger one is scaled to 2000 px on its long side
+and re-encoded to stay under 5 MB, which is what a retina screenshot usually
+needs. Images an MCP tool returns - a browser screenshot, say - are handled the
+same way rather than dropped.
+
+Whether a model can see images comes from the catalogue: OpenRouter's input
+modalities, the Codex catalogue, and Devin's model config. The `/model` picker
+marks the ones that can with `images`. A model that cannot
+is warned about when you attach, and is sent a line saying an image was left
+out, rather than a request that fails. The transcript keeps the image either
+way, so `/model` to one that can see it and ask again.
+
+Over SSH the clipboard you copied into is on your own machine, so `ctrl+v`
+says so; copy the file over and drag or paste its path instead.
+
+#### Keybindings
+
+Any key can be rebound in `~/.hx/keybindings.json`, keyed by the action ids in
+`src/keys.ts`:
+
+```json
+{
+  "app.tools.expand": "ctrl+r",
+  "app.message.copy": ["ctrl+x", "alt+c"]
+}
+```
+
+Modifiers are `ctrl`, `alt` (or `option`), `shift` and `cmd` (or `super`);
+a `cmd` key only arrives from a terminal that passes cmd through. Conflicts and
+unknown action names are reported as a notice at startup rather than being
+silently resolved.
+
+### Commands
+
+| Command | Does |
+|---|---|
+| `/model [query]` | pick a model; shows context window, price per Mtok, cache support. `ctrl+r` in the picker re-fetches the catalogue |
+| `/effort [level]` | how hard a reasoning model thinks, from the levels it offers |
+| `/configure` | session settings and the API key |
+| `/login [provider]` | sign in to a model route |
+| `/logout <provider>` | forget a stored credential |
+| `/mode [name]` | `plan`, `default`, `acceptEdits`, `bypass` |
+| `/permissions` | active rules and what is enforcing them |
+| `/context` | what is filling the context window |
+| `/cost` | tokens, cache savings, spend |
+| `/compact [focus]` | summarise older turns now |
+| `/clear` | fresh session, same directory |
+| `/resume` | switch to another session - this directory's first, then the rest |
+| `/rewind` | go back to an earlier prompt, restoring the files HX changed |
+| `/title [text]` | show or set this session's name |
+| `/prompt` | the system prompt this session is running with |
+| `/todos` | show the current plan |
+| `/skills` | installed skills |
+| `/agents` | subagent types |
+| `/mcp [login\|logout\|reconnect <server>]` | server status, and signing in to remote servers |
+| `/hooks` | configured hooks, and any that were refused |
+| `/theme [name]` | `dark`, `light`, `ansi`, or any theme in `~/.hx/themes` |
+| `/queue [steer <n>\|clear]` | messages waiting for the turn to end, and what to do with them |
+| `/copy` | copy the last reply to the clipboard |
+| `/trace [path]` | write the whole session to a self-contained HTML page |
+| `/fullscreen [on\|off]` | take the whole window, with the prompt pinned to the bottom |
+| `/mouse [on\|off]` | mouse reporting, and with it your terminal's own text selection |
+| `/init` | generate an `AGENTS.md` for the project |
+| `/help` | list commands and keys |
+| `/quit` | exit (also `/exit`, `/q`) |
+
+### The two screens
+
+By default HX draws into your terminal's own scrollback. Finished output belongs
+to the terminal while the session runs: it scrolls it, selects it, copies it and
+pipes it. Nothing is repainted above the fold, so a long session costs the same
+to draw as a short one.
+
+The prompt and the status bar still open on the bottom row of the window: a
+conversation too short to fill the screen is padded above them rather than
+below, so the dock stays where you last saw it instead of creeping down the
+screen a block at a time. The padding is gone by the time the terminal starts
+scrolling.
+
+Leaving takes the whole interface off the screen: the banner, the conversation
+and the dock are erased and your shell prompt comes back on the row HX started
+on, the terminal as it was found. The erase stops at the top of the window -
+lines that had already scrolled above it stay in your scrollback, because the
+only sequence that reaches them takes everything the terminal remembers,
+including what was there before HX ran. `/clear` is the command that asks for
+that.
+
+`/fullscreen` switches to the alternate screen instead - the whole window, the
+prompt pinned to the bottom row, the transcript scrolling above it with `pgup`,
+`pgdn`, `ctrl+home` and `ctrl+end`. The trade is the thing the default was
+chosen for: the alternate screen is not scrollback, so your terminal cannot
+scroll or select it, and it is gone when HX exits. `/fullscreen off` gives it
+back, and either way the choice is written to `tui.fullscreen` for the next
+session. Quitting from fullscreen leaves the same clean terminal as quitting
+from the default screen: the alternate screen goes, and so does the frame HX
+had drawn underneath it before the switch.
+
+`/clear` wipes the screen and the scrollback above it. Terminals that do not
+implement scrollback erasure - macOS Terminal.app is the one people hit - clear
+the screen only, and the old conversation stays above it until you clear it the
+terminal's own way (`cmd+k`).
+
+### Selecting and copying text
+
+Drag to select and `ctrl+c` to copy. HX copies through `pbcopy`, `wl-copy` or
+`xclip` first and falls back to OSC 52, so it works in terminals that ignore
+OSC 52 - macOS Terminal ignores it outright, and iTerm2 ships with it off. The
+notice says which mechanism took the text, so a copy that did nothing says so.
+
+While HX is running, the terminal reports mouse events to it, which means the
+terminal's *own* click-and-drag selection is unavailable. Two ways around that:
+
+* Hold `alt`/`option` while dragging. Most terminals - macOS Terminal, iTerm2,
+  GNOME Terminal - take that as "this drag is mine", and you get the native
+  selection without changing anything.
+* `/mouse off` turns mouse reporting off for the session. Native selection comes
+  back everywhere, and HX stops seeing scroll and clicks until `/mouse on`.
+
+### Steering a running turn
+
+Type while HX is working and `enter` queues the message: it runs when the turn
+ends, which is what you want for "and then do this".
+
+`alt+enter` steers instead. The message goes into the turn that is running now -
+the model call is cut off mid-stream and the next one starts from what you just
+said. Tools already running are left to finish first, because cancelling a
+half-written file is worse than waiting a second for it.
+
+With nothing typed, `alt+enter` steers the message at the front of the queue, so
+a correction you already queued does not have to be typed twice. `/queue` lists
+what is waiting; `/queue steer 2` sends one of them now.
+
+Set `tui.enterWhileBusy` to `"steer"` to swap the two keys around.
+
+### The status bar
+
+Two lines: working directory and permission mode above; token counts, cache
+read/write with hit rate, spend, last-turn latency, context gauge and model
+below. The cache and cost fields are the point of it — a hit rate that
+collapses after an edit is the visible symptom of a broken prefix.
+
+On a subscription there is no per-token price. Once the route reports its
+usage windows, a line above the stats shows them instead:
+
+```
+5h 16% (renews 06:30 am) | 7d 14% (renews Mon Oct 26 04:00 am)
+```
+
+That is 16% of the five-hour window and 14% of the week spent, and when each
+renews. A window turns yellow at 75% and red at 90%, and drops to 0% by itself
+when it renews. ChatGPT and Claude Code report both windows on every answer.
+A Claude Code older than the field HX reads reports a percentage only near a
+limit, so until then its window shows only when it renews:
+`5h (renews 06:30 am)`. Before the first answer there is
+no usage line and the cost field says `sub`, because nothing has been
+reported yet. `/cost` lists the same windows. Devin reports no usage.
+
+On a narrow terminal the usage line gives up detail in steps: the clock time
+of a renewal days away, then the renewals, then every window but the one
+nearest its limit. The stats line drops whole fields, least important first:
+the latency, the token counts, the cache. The context gauge stays.
+
+---
+
+## Configuration
+
+Settings are JSON, merged lowest to highest:
+
+```
+defaults  <  ~/.hx/settings.json  <  ./.hx/settings.json  <  ~/.hx/projects/<project>/settings.local.json  <  HX_* env  <  CLI flags
+```
+
+Permission rule lists and `prompt.append` are unioned across layers, so a
+project can add a deny rule — or a line to the system prompt — without
+discarding yours. Everything else is replaced.
+
+`./.hx/settings.json` is the project's shared file, yours to check in, and
+nothing writes to it but you — HX only ever reads it. Versions before the local
+layer existed did append grants there; those are lifted out into the file below
+on the next run, once, and a rule you put back by hand afterwards stays put.
+Only `allow` moves: a project's `deny` and `ask` are the guardrails it shares,
+and HX never wrote them.
+
+Anything HX decides on your behalf - an "always allow" grant, for one - goes in
+`~/.hx/projects/<project>/settings.local.json` instead. Still per project,
+because a grant is: allowing `pytest` in one repo should not allow it
+everywhere. But under your home rather than in the checkout, so HX never leaves
+a file in your repository for you to find in a diff. If an older version
+already wrote `./.hx/settings.local.json`, it is moved there on the next run,
+along with the `.hx/.gitignore` it added to hide it.
+
+```jsonc
+{
+  "theme": "dark",                    // dark | light | ansi, or a file in ~/.hx/themes
+  "quiet_startup": false,             // skip the startup header
+
+  "models": {
+    "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5",
+    "subagent_model": null,           // defaults to "model"
+    "title_model": null,              // model that names sessions; defaults to "model"
+    "max_tokens": 8192,
+    "temperature": null,
+    "reasoning_effort": null,         // Codex route: null = the model's own default
+    "codex_models": []                // extra Codex ids, e.g. ["gpt-5.6-terra"]
+  },
+
+  "permissions": {
+    "mode": "default",                // plan | default | acceptEdits | bypass
+    "allow": ["Bash(git status:*)"],
+    "ask":   [],
+    "deny":  ["Read(**/.env)"],
+    "sandbox": true,
+    "allow_network": false            // outbound network for sandboxed commands
+  },
+
+  "context": {
+    "compact_at": 0.80,               // fraction of the window that triggers compaction
+    "keep_recent_turns": 6,           // turns kept verbatim across a compaction
+    "tool_output_char_cap": 25000,
+    "tool_output_line_cap": 2000,
+    "git_notices": true               // late-inject the branch and outside file changes
+  },
+
+  "bash": {
+    "timeout_seconds": 120,
+    "max_timeout_seconds": 600,       // ceiling; caps what the model may ask for
+    "shell": null                     // defaults to $SHELL
+  },
+
+  "prompt": {
+    "system": null,                   // replaces the built-in system prompt
+    "append": []                      // added after it; unioned across layers
+  },
+
+  "tui": {
+    "enterWhileBusy": "queue",        // queue | steer - what enter does mid-turn
+    "fullscreen": false               // true takes the whole window (see /fullscreen)
+  },
+
+  "tools": {
+    "hashline": true                  // Read labels lines with content anchors Edit accepts
+  }
+}
+```
+
+`hooks` is configured in the same files but is deliberately not part of this
+merge: it is read per layer, and only from your own settings. See
+[Extending it](#extending-it).
+
+Environment overrides: `HX_MODEL`, `HX_SUBAGENT_MODEL`, `HX_MAX_TOKENS`,
+`HX_PERMISSION_MODE`, `HX_SANDBOX`, `HX_COMPACT_AT`, `HX_GIT_NOTICES`,
+`HX_THEME`, `HX_QUIET_STARTUP`. Also `HX_HOME` to relocate user state, `HX_TAVILY_API_KEY`
+for web search, `HX_CA_BUNDLE` / `HX_SSL_NO_VERIFY` for TLS (see
+[Credentials](#credentials)), and `HX_OPENROUTER_BASE_URL` to point the OpenRouter
+route at another OpenAI-compatible endpoint - a gateway, or a recording proxy.
+`HX_CODEX_BASE_URL` does the same for the ChatGPT route's backend.
+`HX_MODIFIER_PROBE=0` stops HX asking macOS whether shift is held when an
+`enter` arrives (see [Keys](#keys)).
+
+### The system prompt
+
+`hx prompt` prints the prompt this directory resolves to, with its source on
+stderr so stdout stays pipeable. `/prompt` shows the same thing inside a running
+session.
+
+The built-in prompt is `SYSTEM_PROMPT` in `src/core/context.ts`. It is
+replaced by the first of these that exists:
+
+| Source | Scope |
+|---|---|
+| `--system-prompt TEXT` or `@path`, or `prompt.system` | one run |
+| `./.hx/system-prompt.md` | this project |
+| `~/.hx/system-prompt.md` | you, everywhere |
+| the built-in prompt | fallback |
+
+Appended text is added after whichever prompt won, in this order:
+`~/.hx/system-prompt-append.md`, `./.hx/system-prompt-append.md`, then each
+`--append-system-prompt` value (and `prompt.append`) in the order given. Nothing
+appended is ever discarded by a later layer.
+
+This is a different lever from `AGENTS.md`: `AGENTS.md` describes *the project* and is
+injected as its own context section, while these files change *the agent's
+instructions*. Both are read once at startup and frozen, because they sit above
+the first cache breakpoint — an override edited mid-session applies on the next
+run, and `/prompt` says so when it spots one.
+
+### Sessions are named
+
+After the first exchange, HX asks the model for a short name for the session and
+writes it to `~/.hx/sessions/<id>/meta.json`, so `/resume` lists work rather
+than timestamps. It is one small call — cap 32 output tokens, `models.title_model`
+if you want a cheaper model for it — and it is counted in `/cost` like any other.
+If the call fails, or you leave before it is back, the session is still named,
+from your first message.
+
+The live session is never renamed while it runs, and nothing is renamed on
+`/exit`, which returns your shell at once. A session you leave with `/clear` or
+`/resume` - including a `/resume` into another directory - is renamed in the
+background for what it became. `/title <text>` renames it yourself, and a name
+you chose is never replaced.
+
+`/resume` lists every session except the one you are in: this directory's
+first, then other directories', each row naming where it lives. A session from
+this directory is swapped in place. One from elsewhere belongs to that
+directory - its sandbox, permission rules, prompt and tools - so HX restarts
+itself there with `hx resume <id>`, keeping options like `--mode` and
+`--model`.
+
+### Themes
+
+A theme is a JSON file: a `vars` block of raw colours, and a `colors` block
+mapping semantic roles onto them. Drop one in `~/.hx/themes/mine.json` and
+`/theme mine` picks it up — no restart, no code change.
+
+```jsonc
+{
+  "name": "mine",
+  "dark": true,
+  "vars": { "green": "#b5bd68", "gray": "#808080" },
+  "colors": {
+    "background": "#18181e",
+    "success": "green",           // a vars key, or a literal
+    "muted": "gray"
+    // ...every role; a missing one is an error, not a silent black
+  }
+}
+```
+
+The role names are pi's, so [pi](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi) theme
+files load here unchanged. `src/tui/themes/dark.json` is the reference.
+A few roles pi has no concept of may be left out, and borrow another role:
+`toolArgs`, the colour of a tool call's paths and patterns, borrows `accent`;
+`panel` and `mdCodeBlockBg` borrow `surface`; `userText` borrows `text`; and
+`diffHunk` borrows `mdLink`. `background` and `surface` may come from pi's
+`export` instead. pi's `toolPendingBg` is accepted and ignored.
+
+### Where things live
+
+| Path | What |
+|---|---|
+| `~/.hx/settings.json` | your settings |
+| `~/.hx/auth.json` | API keys and logins, mode 0600 |
+| `~/.hx/models.json` | cached model catalogue, refreshed daily |
+| `~/.hx/themes/` | your themes, one JSON file each |
+| `~/.hx/keybindings.json` | your key overrides |
+| `~/.hx/system-prompt.md` | your system prompt, replacing the built-in one |
+| `~/.hx/system-prompt-append.md` | text appended to whichever prompt is in force |
+| `~/.hx/AGENTS.md` | your instructions, loaded into every session in every project; created empty |
+| `~/.hx/sessions/` | transcripts, spilled tool output, subagent sessions |
+| `~/.hx/sessions/<id>/trace.html` | where `/trace` writes, unless you name a path |
+| `~/.hx/skills/`, `~/.hx/agents/` | your skills and agents |
+| `~/.hx/projects/<project>/settings.local.json` | this machine's settings for one project - where "always allow" lands |
+| `./.hx/settings.json` | project settings, checked in if you like — read by HX, never written |
+| `./.hx/mcp.json` | project MCP servers |
+| `./.hx/system-prompt.md`, `./.hx/system-prompt-append.md` | project prompt overrides |
+| `./.hx/skills/`, `./.hx/agents/` | project skills and agents |
+| `AGENTS.md` | project instructions: the repository root's, then each one down to where HX started |
+
+`AGENTS.md` is the place for things a newcomer would get wrong: how to run the
+tests, conventions, what not to touch. `/init` writes a first draft. It is
+loaded once per session and frozen, so it costs one prefix, not one per turn.
+
+`~/.hx/AGENTS.md` is the same thing for you rather than the project: how you
+like commits written, tools you always want used, in every repository. It is
+loaded first and the project's `AGENTS.md` after it, so where the two disagree
+the project has the last word. The first session creates it empty, ready to
+fill in; empty, it adds nothing. `hx prompt` and `/prompt` list each one in force.
+
+Started below the repository root - in `services/billing`, say - HX still loads
+the root's `AGENTS.md`, then every `AGENTS.md` on the way down to that directory,
+the nearest last, so a package can refine the repository's rules. A submodule
+counts as part of the repository around it. Nothing above the repository root is
+read; outside a repository only the current directory is.
+Subagents run under the same files as the session that started them.
+
+---
+
+## Safety
+
+Two independent layers guard every tool call, and both must pass.
+
+**Permission rules** are `Tool(specifier)` strings — `Bash(git commit:*)`,
+`Edit(src/**)`, `Read(**/.ssh/**)`. Deny beats ask beats allow, and a deny
+holds even in bypass mode. Shell commands are decomposed into their real
+segments first, so an allow rule for `git status` does not carry
+`&& rm -rf /` along with it; a command that cannot be decomposed with
+confidence prompts rather than passing. What runs inside a command counts as a
+segment of its own - `$(...)`, `<(...)`, `>(...)` - so `cat <(rm -rf src)` is
+not a read-only `cat`. A deny rule matches the command however it is spelled:
+`deny: Bash(rm:*)` also stops `FOO=1 rm`, `/bin/rm` and `nohup rm`. An allow
+rule covers only what it names, so `allow: Bash(ls)` does not cover
+`LD_PRELOAD=x ls`.
+
+**Credential files** - the same `~/.ssh`, `~/.aws` and `auth.json` the sandbox
+guards - always ask before Read, Grep, Glob, Symbols, Write or Edit touch them,
+in every mode, symlinks followed. Those tools run inside HX, outside the
+sandbox. An allow rule that names the file, such as `allow: Read(~/.ssh/config)`,
+opens that one file. A search that starts above them, from `$HOME`, leaves
+them out.
+
+**An OS sandbox** wraps command execution: Seatbelt on macOS, bubblewrap on
+Linux. The filesystem is readable, writes are confined to the project and the
+temp dir, credential paths (`~/.ssh`, `~/.aws`, and HX's own `auth.json`) are
+unreadable and unwritable - even inside the project, and even before they
+exist - and outbound network is off. If neither backend is present the
+status bar says `no-sandbox` rather than implying protection that is not there.
+The API keys HX signs in with (`HX_OPENROUTER_API_KEY`, `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`,
+and the Tavily and Devin keys) are removed from the environment of every
+command it runs.
+
+Modes cycle with shift+tab: `plan` (read-only — mutating tools are not even
+offered to the model), `default`, `acceptEdits`, `bypass`. `acceptEdits` covers
+the project's own files: a Write or Edit outside the project, through a symlink
+that leads out of it, or into its `.git` or `.hx` folder still asks.
+
+**Nothing that arrives with a clone runs by itself.** Hooks in a project's
+shared `.hx/settings.json` are ignored, and a server in its `.hx/mcp.json`
+starts only once you approve it - see [Extending it](#extending-it).
+
+---
+
+## Context engineering
+
+Long sessions are the normal case, so the harness is built around keeping the
+provider's KV cache warm and the window from filling up.
+
+**A stable prefix.** System prompt, tool schemas and project context are
+assembled in a fixed order and never mutated mid-session. Cache breakpoints sit
+at the end of that static block and at a rolling point before the recent turns,
+which only advances once enough tokens have accumulated behind it.
+
+**Late injection** carries everything that changes per turn - the todo list,
+files that changed on disk since HX read them, the git branch and any file the
+working tree gained or lost outside the session - on the tail of the newest
+user message rather than in the prefix. Stale copies are stripped and
+regenerated each turn, so six todo updates leave one copy in context, not six.
+
+**Working-tree notices** come from one `git status --porcelain=v2 --branch -z`
+per provider call, run without a shell and bounded by a two-second timeout. It
+runs in a worker thread, as every injector does: a turn makes one of these per
+tool round-trip, and on the event loop a slow repository would freeze the UI
+each time. A file HX has already read is left to the stale-file notice, so no
+path is reported twice; outside a repository the watcher disables itself for
+the session. Turn it off with `"context": {"git_notices": false}`.
+
+**Rewind** (`/rewind`) picks an earlier prompt and takes the session back to
+it: the transcript is cut there and every file HX wrote after it is restored
+from a content-addressed snapshot taken before each Write and Edit. A file
+someone else changed in the meantime is reported and left alone, and shell
+commands are outside the scheme - the report says so rather than implying the
+tree was fully returned. The prompt that was cut comes back in the input box,
+because a rewind is usually the first half of saying it differently. Nothing is
+deleted from the session file: the rewind is one more append, and replaying the
+file reproduces the state - which is also how an undone compaction gives its
+messages back. The cost ledger is deliberately not rewound; those tokens were
+spent.
+
+**Compaction** fires at 80% of the window, or on `/compact [focus]`. Older
+turns are replaced by a structured summary; the recent turns and the todo list
+survive verbatim, and the boundary snaps to a turn edge so a tool call is never
+severed from its results. Superseded messages are flagged, not deleted, so
+resume replays exactly what happened.
+
+**Output capping** keeps the head and tail of a large tool result, spills the
+rest to the session directory, and hands the model that path to grep.
+
+---
+
+## Tracing a session
+
+`/trace` writes everything that happened to one self-contained HTML file and
+opens it in a browser:
+
+```
+/trace                      # ~/.hx/sessions/<id>/trace.html
+/trace ~/Desktop/bug.html   # somewhere you choose
+```
+
+Everything means everything. The system prompt, the project context, the skills
+index, every tool schema as the provider received it, every prompt, every
+reply, every thinking block, every tool call next to the result it produced,
+the per-call token ledger, and the files HX changed. Late-injected reminders
+and compacted turns are in there too, behind a toggle that says how many there
+are — a trace that hides the reminders and the superseded turns is not a trace
+of the session that ran.
+
+Nothing is summarised and nothing is prettified. Assistant text is shown as it
+arrived, backticks and all, because a trace exists to answer "what actually
+went through" and a rendered version of that is a different document. Long tool
+results are folded rather than truncated, with the character count on the fold.
+
+**Thinking, where the provider allows it.** How much of a model's reasoning HX
+ever sees is the provider's decision, not HX's. Anthropic's models return the
+thinking itself. The Responses API - the OpenAI and Codex routes - returns a
+one-line summary in plaintext and the reasoning encrypted, to be replayed on
+the next call and read by nobody, HX included. A trace labels which of the two
+it is holding, because a one-line thinking block is otherwise indistinguishable
+from a trace that dropped the rest.
+
+A running session traces as it stands right now, including the turn that just
+landed. The page says so, because a trace of a live session is a snapshot.
+
+**Reading it.** Long tool results are folded and the reference panels - the
+prompt, the schemas, the ledger - start shut, so the transcript is what you
+land on. "Expand all" opens the whole page, panels included, and turns into
+"Collapse all". A session with no turns yet opens its panels on its own, since
+there is nothing else to read.
+
+**Dark or light.** The page follows your system by default and a button in the
+corner overrides it, remembered per browser. No stylesheet is fetched to do it.
+
+**Nothing is uploaded and nothing is fetched.** The payload, the stylesheet and
+the script all live in the file, so it opens offline, renders the same a year
+later, and a trace of a private repository stays as private as the directory
+you wrote it into. The embedded payload is also the machine-readable trace: it
+is JSON, in a `<script id="trace-data">` element, and `/trace` is the only way
+HX will ever put your transcript anywhere but `~/.hx`.
+
+From outside a session, on any transcript on the machine:
+
+```sh
+hx trace                        # the last session in this directory
+hx trace 20260918-214743-b5b8f9 # one by id
+hx trace ~/somewhere.html       # the last session, to a path you choose
+hx trace <id> ~/somewhere.html  # both, to a path or a directory
+open "$(hx trace)"              # the path is all that goes to stdout
+```
+
+`hx trace` reads the transcript and runs nothing, so it works on a session that
+ended months ago and on one another terminal has open right now.
+
+**What a trace can be missing.** The prompt and the tool schemas are written to
+the transcript on the session's first provider call — the first moment the tool
+registry has settled, because MCP servers connect after the loop is built. A
+session traced before that call, or one recorded by a version of HX older than
+this feature, has the transcript but not the prompt, and the page leaves those
+panels out rather than guessing. `/trace` inside a live session fills them in
+from the loop either way.
+
+---
+
+## Reading and editing code
+
+**Line anchors.** `Read` labels every line with a short content hash:
+
+```
+     1 a3f9	def handle(request):
+     2 7c1c	    if request.method == "POST":
+```
+
+The anchor is a hash of the line and its two neighbours, truncated to the
+narrowest width that is unambiguous in that file. `Edit` takes those anchors
+instead of retyped content:
+
+```json
+{ "file_path": "app.py", "hashline": [{ "start": "a3f9", "end": "7c1c", "new_string": "..." }] }
+```
+
+The span is inclusive; omit `end` to replace one line, pass an empty
+`new_string` to delete. Anchors are recomputed from disk when the edit runs, so
+a file that moved under the model fails to resolve and the patch is rejected
+rather than applied at stale coordinates. Exact-match `old_string` still works
+and is unchanged; anchors are a second shape, not a replacement. Turn the whole
+thing off with `"tools": {"hashline": false}` and reads go back to plain
+`cat -n`.
+
+**Images.** `Read` on a PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, BMP or TIFF - or on a file with
+no extension whose bytes are one - returns the image itself for the model to
+look at, normalised the way a pasted one is (see [Images](#images)).
+
+**Symbols** answers structural questions with a parse tree rather than a
+regex — three modes, `outline` for one file's shape, `definition` for where a
+name is defined, `references` for where it is used:
+
+```
+Symbols(mode="references", symbol="handle")
+```
+
+Because it matches identifier nodes, the same word in a comment or a string
+literal never matches. It cannot resolve types, so an unrelated symbol with the
+same name in another file still does; it is tighter than `Grep`, not a language
+server. Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Go and Rust.
+
+It needs grammars that are not installed by default, and the tool is simply not
+registered without them — its schema never enters the cached prefix advertising
+something that cannot run:
+
+```sh
+npm install --global @vscode/tree-sitter-wasm
+```
+
+---
+
+## Extending it
+
+**Skills** are directories containing `SKILL.md` with YAML frontmatter:
+
+```markdown
+---
+name: deploy
+description: Tag, build and ship a release
+allowed-tools: Read, Bash          # optional; narrows the toolset while active
+---
+
+1. Run the tests.
+2. Tag the commit.
+```
+
+Drop them in `.hx/skills/<name>/` or `~/.hx/skills/<name>/`; a project skill
+shadows a user one of the same name. Only the name and description enter the
+context — the body loads when the model calls `Skill(name)`, so a hundred
+installed skills cost a hundred lines, not a hundred documents.
+
+**Subagents** run in their own context with their own transcript, tool
+allowlist and model. Only the final report returns to the parent, so a long
+search costs the caller one paragraph instead of every intermediate tool
+result. `explore`, `plan` and `general` ship built in; add your own as
+`.hx/agents/<name>.md`:
+
+```markdown
+---
+name: reviewer
+description: Reviews a diff against the project's conventions
+tools: Read, Grep
+model: openai/gpt-5                 # optional
+---
+
+You review code. Be specific and cite file:line.
+```
+
+A subagent never gets the `Task` tool, so recursion is impossible by
+construction.
+
+**MCP servers** go in `.hx/mcp.json`:
+
+```json
+{
+  "mcpServers": {
+    "local": { "command": "python", "args": ["server.py"] },
+    "remote": { "url": "https://example.com/mcp" }
+  }
+}
+```
+
+Or `hx mcp add local python server.py`, or
+`hx mcp add remote --url https://example.com/mcp`.
+
+A server in the project's `.hx/mcp.json` runs a command on your machine, and
+the file arrives with a clone - so HX does not start it until you approve it.
+A session names each one waiting, with what it runs. `hx mcp approve local`
+starts it from the next session on, and `hx mcp add` approves what it adds.
+The approval is for that command: if a `git pull` changes it, the server waits
+again. Servers in your own `~/.hx/mcp.json` need no approval.
+
+Tools arrive namespaced
+`mcp__<server>__<tool>` in a deterministic order. Servers connect concurrently
+with a per-server timeout; one that is broken or slow logs a warning and is
+dropped rather than taking the session with it. A server that changes its tool
+list mid-session (`notifications/tools/list_changed`) has the new list swapped
+in without a restart.
+
+A remote server that asks for sign-in - Atlassian's, for one - is signed in to
+over OAuth, with nothing to configure:
+
+```json
+{ "mcpServers": { "atlassian": { "url": "https://mcp.atlassian.com/v2/mcp" } } }
+```
+
+It shows as needing sign-in until you run `/mcp login atlassian` in a session
+or `hx mcp login atlassian` in a shell. That opens the browser, and the tools
+arrive as soon as you approve - no restart. HX follows the MCP authorization
+spec: it finds the authorization server from the server's metadata, registers
+itself as a client, signs in with PKCE, and keeps the token in `~/.hx/auth.json`
+(mode 0600), refreshing it before it expires and again if the server rejects
+it. Over SSH, paste the final redirect URL into the prompt instead.
+`/mcp logout atlassian` forgets it.
+
+A server that does not offer client registration needs a client you register
+with it yourself, and anything else about the sign-in can be pinned the same
+way:
+
+```json
+"oauth": { "clientId": "...", "clientSecret": "...", "scope": "read write", "callbackPort": 33418 }
+```
+
+To send a token of your own instead - an API key - give the server an
+`Authorization` header, and OAuth stays out of the way:
+`hx mcp add jira --url https://mcp.atlassian.com/v2/mcp --header "Authorization: Basic <base64 email:token>"`.
+
+**Hooks** are shell commands HX runs at named points in a turn. Four events:
+`PreToolUse`, `PostToolUse`, `UserPromptSubmit` and `Stop`.
+
+```json
+{
+  "hooks": {
+    "PreToolUse": [
+      {
+        "matcher": "Bash",
+        "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "~/.hx/guard-bash.sh", "timeout": 10 }]
+      }
+    ],
+    "PostToolUse": [
+      { "matcher": "Edit|Write", "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "ruff check --quiet" }] }
+    ]
+  }
+}
+```
+
+`matcher` is a regex matched against the whole tool name; omit it, or use `*`,
+to match every tool. The hook reads a JSON event on stdin — `session_id`,
+`cwd`, `hook_event_name`, and `tool_name`/`tool_input` where they apply — and
+answers with its exit code:
+
+| Exit | Means |
+|---|---|
+| `0` | allow |
+| `2` | block. stderr becomes the reason the model is given |
+| anything else | the hook is broken. Reported as a notice; the action proceeds |
+
+That last row is deliberate: a typo in a shell command must not be able to
+wedge a session. Only an explicit refusal stops anything.
+
+A hook may also print JSON on stdout: `{"decision": "block", "reason": "..."}`
+refuses, `{"updatedInput": {...}}` rewrites a tool's arguments before the
+permission engine sees them, and `{"additionalContext": "..."}` adds a note for
+the model to read. The format matches Claude Code's, so hooks already written
+against that work here unchanged.
+
+A worked example ships in the repository:
+[`examples/hooks/check.sh`](https://github.com/aletisunil/hx/blob/main/examples/hooks/check.sh)
+runs the checker a project already has — `ruff`, `tsc`, `go vet`, `cargo
+check` — against the one file the model just edited, and returns whatever it
+says as `additionalContext`. The model sees the errors appended to its own edit
+result and fixes them on the next turn, rather than discovering them at test
+time. It exits 0 either way: by `PostToolUse` the write has already landed, so
+refusing it would be an answer to something that already happened.
+
+```sh
+curl -o ~/.hx/check.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aletisunil/hx/main/examples/hooks/check.sh
+chmod +x ~/.hx/check.sh
+```
+
+**Where hooks may be declared is a security boundary.** They are loaded from
+`~/.hx/settings.json` and `~/.hx/projects/<slug>/settings.local.json` only.
+Hooks in a project's checked-in `.hx/settings.json` are ignored and listed by
+`/hooks`, because that file arrives with a clone and cloning a repository must
+never be enough to run commands on the machine that cloned it. To adopt a
+shared hook, copy it into your own settings — a deliberate act by the person
+who will run it. Subagents inherit the parent's hooks, so a guard cannot be
+bypassed by delegating through `Task`.
+
+---
+
+## Development
+
+```sh
+git clone https://github.com/aletisunil/hx && cd hx
+npm ci
+
+npm run check                # tsc, biome, and the source-literal check
+npm run build                # dist/hx.js, the bundle npm ships
+node dist/hx.js              # run from the checkout
+npm run e2e                  # build, then the whole end-to-end suite
+uv run ruff check . && uv run ruff format --check .   # the suite's own Python
+```
+
+The suite is end-to-end, written in Python with pytest, and run with
+[uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/). Each test in `tests/e2e/` starts the `hx`
+bundle - on a real pseudo-terminal for the TUI, or as a plain subprocess for
+print mode and the other commands - in a private `$HOME` and `$HX_HOME`, and
+points it at a local OpenRouter stand-in with `HX_OPENROUTER_BASE_URL`, and
+at a ChatGPT stand-in with `HX_CODEX_BASE_URL`.
+Everything between the keyboard and the socket is the shipped code; only the
+model's replies are scripted. The screen is read back through a VT emulator,
+so assertions are on the cells a terminal shows, not on the bytes HX meant to
+write. The suite never imports HX: it tests `dist/hx.js` by default, and any
+other `hx` - an installed one, say - named by `HX_E2E_BIN`.
+
+Every run writes `e2e-report/`: `index.html` shows each test's outcome and
+every screen it checked, rendered in colour, and one text file per screen lets
+two runs be compared with `diff -r`. CI uploads it from every test job as an
+`e2e-report-*` artifact. Set `HX_E2E_REPORT` to write it somewhere else.
+
+Tests that need the OS sandbox are skipped where there is no backend
+(`sandbox-exec` on macOS, `bwrap` on Linux).
+
+### Layout
+
+```
+src/
+  cli.ts runtime.ts config.ts paths.ts frontmatter.ts git.ts trace.ts
+  core/         loop, context assembly, compaction, late injection, sessions, usage
+  auth/         credential store, OAuth flows, per-route resolution
+  providers/    OpenRouter, Codex, Claude Code, Devin, the model catalogue
+  tools/        Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, Symbols, TodoWrite, Task,
+                WebSearch, WebFetch, line anchors, output capping
+  permissions/  rule engine, shell decomposition, Seatbelt/bubblewrap
+  hooks/        the four events, the trust boundary, subprocess execution
+  skills/ agents/
+  mcp/          client, OAuth, and approval for a project's servers
+  keys.ts       keybinding registry: ids, defaults, descriptions, user overrides
+  term/         the renderer: raw mode, input decoding, the differ, the screen
+  tui/          views, commands, per-tool renderers, themes
+    themes/     the shipped palettes, as JSON
+  py.ts pathlib.ts json.ts   Python's string, path and JSON behaviour, which
+                             HX's output and files were written against
+```
+
+The core is headless and emits events; the TUI and print mode are both just
+consumers. Nothing under `core/`, `tools/`, `providers/` or `permissions/`
+imports `tui/`.
+
+---
+
+## Releasing
+
+For maintainers. HX is published to npm as **`@sunilaleti/hx`**, on the
+`latest` tag, by CI. Every version is a stable release; there is no beta
+channel.
+
+A push to `main` whose `package.json` version is not on npm yet is a release:
+once lint, the test suite and the install script pass, CI's `release` job
+publishes it to npm, tags it `vX.Y.Z` and makes the GitHub release, with the
+version's `CHANGELOG.md` section as its notes. A push that leaves the version
+alone publishes nothing.
+
+```sh
+# 1. move CHANGELOG.md's [Unreleased] entries under the new version, dated,
+#    and leave a fresh empty [Unreleased] behind
+# 2. bump "version" in package.json
+npm version X.Y.Z --no-git-tag-version
+# 3. the whole suite; the version must have a CHANGELOG section
+npm run e2e
+git commit -am "chore(release): X.Y.Z"
+git push origin main
+```
+
+Step 1 is not optional and is not a convention: `tests/e2e/test_cli.py` fails the
+whole suite when the version has no `CHANGELOG.md` section, and the `release`
+job checks again before it publishes. The file ships inside the bundle and
+`hx changelog` prints it, so a version with no section there would reach users
+as a blank release.
+
+One-time setup: CI publishes with npm's
+[trusted publishing](https://docs.npmjs.com/trusted-publishers), so no npm
+token is stored anywhere. On npmjs.com, open `@sunilaleti/hx` → Settings →
+Trusted Publisher, choose GitHub Actions, and enter owner `aletisunil`,
+repository `hx` and workflow `ci.yml`, with no environment.
+
+To see what npm would ship before releasing:
+
+```sh
+npm pack --dry-run
+```
+
+---
+
+## Status
+
+Feature complete against the original plan: the agent loop, OpenRouter
+streaming with prefix caching and accurate cost accounting, session persistence
+and resume, the tool suite, the permission engine and OS sandbox, late
+injection, compaction, output capping, skills, subagents, MCP, and the TUI.
+
+Four routes to a model: an OpenRouter API key, a ChatGPT Plus/Pro
+subscription over OAuth, a Claude Pro/Max subscription through Claude Code, or
+a Devin subscription over OAuth. The model id decides which.
+
+Published to npm as [`@sunilaleti/hx`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@sunilaleti/hx).
+The Python build that came before it, `hx-cli` on PyPI, stopped at 0.2.20.
+
+No test reaches a real model: every route is proven against a local stand-in.